India Web 3.0 Summit Highlights: Digitalisation is a necessity, not a choice, says Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar

Rajesh Pant, Chairman Cyber Security Association of India and Chairman, India Future Foundation: We need a National Cyber Security Strategy, because our existing policy is of 2013 and a lot of things have changed. There was no crypto. Now, new-age crimes have come up. So we need a new national cybersecurity strategy.

Rajesh Pant: We need a National Cyber Security Organization. All the countries around the world have done it. Israel has a National Cyber Security Directorate. Singapore as a cybersecurity agency. China, of course, the cyberspace organisation. UK has a National Cyber Security Center. All the major developed countries have created a centralised organisation, which is responsible for the protection of cyberspace, and that is what we need.

Rajesh Pant, Chairman Cyber Security Association of India and Chairman, India Future Foundation: We have a national Computer Emergency Response Team, which already has a cyber crisis management plan. There are seven critical sectors that we have identified. And we are doing cyber diplomacy.

Rajesh Pant: The rules for the DPDP Act (Digital Personal Data Protection Act) should come out before the winter session of the parliament.

Rajesh Pant, Chairman Cyber Security Association of India and Chairman, India Future Foundation: India is one of the most cyber-attacked nations in the world. Digital arrest of cyberfrauds is a separate aspect where they are not attacking the system, they are hacking the brain. They are taking advantage of the fear factor, the psychological factor, the age factor. Most of these crimes take place on the weekends, where the bank's responses are also not as good as on weekdays.

Rajesh Pant: There is a global cybersecurity index of the International Telecommunications Union. That is the standard by which nations are judged. So from 47th place, India came down to 10th place. Today, in the new revised format, we are in the top-most category.

SB Sekar, Head of APAC, Binance: APAC has 69-70 percent growth rate for digital assets adoption, India has been the leader in digital assets adoption. India has been at the top end of digital assets adoption and its a trend that is going to continue.

SB Sekar, Head of APAC, Binance: That's a major reason why India is of interest to us. Binance is now a full-scale ecosystem and therefore the country and India is one of the countries where we want to do business.

Sumit Gupta, Co-founder, CoinDCX: There needs to be rationalisation of taxes, support the domestic industries and Web3 builders, there needs to be structured conversation between the government and industry players

Edul Patel, Co-founder, Mudrex: Indians spend close $13 billion in fees to move their own money in remittances every year. Just the cost is so high, that people have to send north of $2000-3000 to justify that. if we use stablecoins, people will be able to send as low as $10.

Rachel Conlan, CMO, Binance: Crypto adoption is one of the fastest growing in India. There's a commitment to get regulatory clarity. India is in a position where it can build decentralised solutions faster than anywhere else in the world.

Conlan, Binance: Through the lens of the user, the policy and regulations cannot be a roadblock scaring them to enter crypto, it needs to get them clarity.

Edul Patel, Mudrex: There needs to be regulated stablecoins, clarity around exchanges and what their businesses should be.

Beatriz Callaghan, Sales Director, Canton:  Canton tokenises over $6 trillion worth of real-world assets globally. With the tokenisation process you can tokenise land titles, traditional assets or natively issued assets. We have created a Goldman Sachs digital assets platform. India can take different focus points and areas to digitise and tokenise them and offer fractional ownership.

Edul Patel, Co-founder, Mudrex: Currencies are the first real-world assets that are being tokenised, and stable coins are the representation of that.

Sumit Gupta, Co-founder & CEO, CoinDCX: We are at a unique juncture where India can replicate the success of UPI through the Web 3 stack.

Rahul Narwekar,Speaker, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly: Maharashtra today aspires to become a $1 trillion economy in the next few years. It has one of the finest network of industries in the country. There is a lot riding on the state's growth. If the state wants to achieve its vision and dreams, it is very important for us to embark on the story of digitalisation.

Rahul Narwekar, Speaker, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly: India has a federal structure of governance. Every level has its own legislative body.

Rahul Narwekar, Speaker, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly: PM Modi is clear that if federalism has to be protected, then all the key decisions of policies should be available to everyone easily. Sitting in Maharashtra, i should be able to access policy decisions of other states as well. More transparency will result in the progress of democratic values.

Rahul Narwekar, Speaker, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly: Transparency brings in trust. It needs data and the data has to be protected. When the Right To Information Act was passed, perhaps if the then government had aggressively adopted digitalisation, then maybe there may not have been any need for the RTI Act itself.

Rahul Narwekar, Speaker, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly: When I took over as the speaker of the Maharashtra assembly, common man had difficulty in accessing debates and other key things.

Rahul Narwekar: Now, all the debates and key decisions are available with just a click, which can be used anywhere such as courts or somewhere else. This will enhance the spirit of democracy and good governance and result in the overall progress of the nation.

Rahul Narwekar: Therefore digitalisation is important. Earlier, you had to run to the local tehsil office for real estate information. Now you can access it from your office.

Rahul Narwekar, Speaker, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly: Digitalisation is no more a choice but a compulsion for every state and country to lead the world.

Rahul Narwekar, Speaker, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly: India is an aspirational society, we are the fourth largest economy now and will be the third largest by 2027.

Rahul Narwekar, Speaker, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly: These goals will be difficult to achieve without digitalisation.

Ajay Rajan, Yes Bank: Offline use cases of CBDCs are already live. RBI wants people to innovate on cbdc use cases. UPI penetration is still only 50-60%. CBDCs will improve the digital payment penetration in low- , no-internet areas.

Ashish Singhal, CEO, IBDIC: Blockchain, tokenisation are the technologies that are waiting to be adopted in large scale. This is something we need to focus on in the next 3-5 years.

Divyansha Nasa, Partner, EY: One of the challenges of adopting digital currencies is the security part of it. CBDCs are safer that way.

Ajay Rajan, Yes Bank: Asset tokenisation is going to be very prominent. And this area will need a settlements, where CBDCs can be helpful

Ajay Rajan, Yes Bank: CBDCs being issued on the go for tourists will reduce dependency on cash and need for exchanges

Tirtha Chaterjee, Partner, BCG:  The cost of cross-border payments can be reduced by 50%, the time taken for settling remittances can be reduced to seconds from 2 days using CBDCs.

Ajay Rajan, Country Head -- Govt, multinational & international business, transaction banking, and knowledge units, Yes Bank: 850 crores digital currencies in circulation. First 2 years went into developing use cases of digital currencies. Third year is for innovations.

8 new products based on CBDCs were launched at the Global Fintech Fest this year.

Saurabh Garg, MoSPI Secretary: MoSPI follows international guidelines for collecting data. Since Jan 2025, we've been bringing monthly PLFS. Since then, we've significantly increased the sample size. Our sample size is bigger than the sample size used by other agencies.

Saurabh Garg, MoSPI Secretary: We have a high focus on the quality of data. We regularly do data user conferences with stakeholders, and we're open to questions. We are hopeful that the private sector's data will improve.

Saurabh Garg, MoSPI Secretary:  We are updating CPI base to 2023-24. It will reflect the basket of items that households currently uses. Food forms a smaller basket that people now use. The weight of conveyance has risen. The RBI uses it for Monetary Policy. Our attempt is to ensure that whatever data that RBI uses from is robust.

Saurabh Garg, MoSPI Secretary: We are getting real-time data, such as payments data at the aggregate level. This would tell us, which sector is witnessing what level of growth.

Saurabh Garg, MoSPI Secretary: We are focusing on timeliness of data. We want to bring the data within the specific time frame. PLFS data, we are targetting to bring it within 15 days of the month.

Saurabh Garg, MoSPI Secretary: Our focus uptill now was to bring national and state level data. We're now working with states, to bring district level data. We're seeing if we can bring CPI, and IIP data on the district level.

Saurabh Garg, MoSPI Secretary: We are using alternate data sources, such as geospatial data to identify houses of individuals (who are to be surveyed). We're using e-commerce data, GST data.

Saurabh Garg, MoSPI Secretary: We are updating the base year of GDP to 2022-23 from 2011-12. The new series the latest trends of consumption, and the items. The coverage of economy has become much more granular. We're reworking the weights of different sectors of the economy, based on consumption patterns.

Saurabh Garg, MoSPI Secretary: The female labour participation rate still below global levels, despite increasing.

Saurabh Garg, MoSPI Secretary: MosPI focuses on robustness and accuracy, and quality of data. Our statistical system is well equipped for that. We don't do any pen and paper collection, we do it through tablets. The data collected is uploaded on cloud, where it's validated.

Dr Loganathan Murugan, Union Minister of State for Ministry of Information and Broadcasting: The revolution has helped plug loopholes. Now if we send Rs 100, the beneficiaries receive full amount because of the digital mission.

Dr Loganathan Murugan, Union Minister of State for Ministry of Information and Broadcasting: The digital mission, data and digitalisation is taking place very fast in the country.

Dr Loganathan Murugan, Union Minister of State for Ministry of Information and Broadcasting: We are now taking next level. IMF also acknowledged after tech revolution, saying India is becoming a leader in digital ecosystem.

Dr Loganathan Murugan, Union Minister of State for Ministry of Information and Broadcasting:  Our digital technology empowers the tools such as UPI and e-marketplace and in other places government is establishing digital tech.

Dr Loganathan Murugan, Union Minister of State for Ministry of Information and Broadcasting:  Some said implementing digital India's vision won't be possible because many people still don't know how to use their mobile. But because of PM Modi's vision, now people have adopted digital payments. I visited a rural area once where I was able to make payments through UPI.

Dr Loganathan Murugan, Union Minister of State for Ministry of Information and Broadcasting: This revolution is now taking place where we are taking digital adoption to several sectors such as health, broadcast and others.

Dr Loganathan Murugan, Union Minister of State for Ministry of Information and Broadcasting: This summit is exploring the possibilities of web 3.0.

Today India stands in a defining moment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken India's digital vision to a new level.

India is leading and pioneering in the tech world.

Niranjan Hiranandani, Chairman, NAREDCO; Founder, Hiranandani Group: Because of AI, you will be able to make better judgment calls.

Niranjan Hiranandani, Chairman, NAREDCO; Founder, Hiranandani Group: Every year, we may see 25-35% compounded increase in investments in real estate.

Niranjan Hiranandani, Chairman, NAREDCO: Commercial property will be easier to tokenise.

Reshmi Panicker, Executive Director- Land Services and Residential, Knight Frank India: It is going to take some time for real estate tokenization to mature. It needs a lot of aspects to be covered, digitize land records, regulatory access.. whole lot of things to be done for this to be successful.

Vinod Rohira, MD and CEO, K Raheja Corp: Our markets are not mature and disciplined to be able to adapt to a product like tokenization, as there is no real transparency. We are a long way to go.

Even REIT model took a long time to take off.

Digital mapping of real estate is very important and inevitable, it's a matter of time.

Niranjan Hiranandani, Chairman, NAREDCO; Founder, Hiranandani Group: More you marketise, more you speculate.

Niranjan Hiranandani, Chairman, NAREDCO; Founder, Hiranandani Group: RERA has completely changed the aspect of data availability and transparency.

Samujjwal Ghosh, CEO, House of Abhinandan Lodha: Endeavour is to democratise land and make land an essential part of wealth portfolio.

Niranjan Hiranandani, Chairman, NAREDCO; Founder, Hiranandani Group: Capital markets have too much money, real estate is the place to put it.

Niranjan Hiranandani, Chairman, NAREDCO; Founder, Hiranandani Group: It is going to be consolidation first, tokenisation second.

Niranjan Hiranandani, Chairman, NAREDCO; Founder, Hiranandani Group: Pre-COVID, there were 18,000 developers in MMR now there are 12,000.

Niranjan Hiranandani, Chairman, NAREDCO; Founder, Hiranandani Group: Trust and consolidation factor will be more important in the future.

Samujjwal Ghosh, CEO, House of Abhinandan Lodha: Land and gold are two means of creating inter generational wealth.

Samujjwal Ghosh, CEO, House of Abhinandan Lodha: We have been able to take land to various parts of country in a satchetised format to people across the globe.

Samujjwal Ghosh, CEO, House of Abhinandan Lodha: Tokenisation and Web 3.0 is a natural progression for us.

Kaustubh Dhavse, Chief Advisor (Investments & Strategy) to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra: Blockchain is now in full fledged implementation in several applications across the board. My sense is that we have to identify areas where we feel that this particular technology can be an enabler

Vishesh Sarangal, Special Secretary, Good Governance and Information Technology, Government of Punjab: In Punjab we have a very robust Supply Chain Management System. What we require is a system on top of it, which is, for most optimized solutions. These are ready to uptake these technologies, we need some time.

Vishesh Sarangal, Special Secretary, Good Governance and Information Technology, Government of Punjab: Web 3.0 has a long way to go. We need to create a more decentralized system. So, in that regulation will definitely play a role. We cannot recognize it as of now, to the extent because the technology itself is evolving.

Kaustubh Dhavse, Chief Advisor (Investments & Strategy) to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra: Blockchain has successfully delivered certain products and services. It may not be mass use for generics across the country, but the technology can deliver much more. Regulation is essential and has to be an enabler. Regulation is struggling to keep pace.

Vishesh Sarangal, Special Secretary, Good Governance and Information Technology, Government of Punjab: Infrastructure is yet to be placed for us to develop web 3.0, we need to have that kind of infrastructure where our innovators, where our academicians in the private sector have a place where they can test, control, and find a very verifiable outcome which can be generated through these technologies.

Vishesh Sarangal: We have identified 41 use cases across various departments like education, agri, etc.

Kaustubh Dhavse, Chief Advisor (Investments & Strategy) to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra: Blockchain has certain applications across a wide variety of government areas. Adoption has been slow

Kaustubh Dhavse, Chief Advisor (Investments & Strategy) to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra: There is Typical conventional method of read estate valuation. But by putting it on blockchain it will creaete a unique number for your real estate. It can be used to fund your business.

Vishesh Sarangal, Special Secretary, Good Governance and Information Technology, Government of Punjab: Punjab has been working towards citizen centric services. Out of Approx 846 citizen centric services, 436 are already online

Kaustubh Dhavse, Chief Advisor (Investments & Strategy) to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra : Right from 2014 till date, we have executed more than $39 billion worth of infrastructure projects

Kaustubh: We have untapped potential of real estate which is underperforming

Kaustubh: We want to become first tokenised state using blockchain technology to create digital asset

Kaustubh Dhavse, Chief Advisor (Investments & Strategy) to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra: Maharashtra contributes 15% to our national GDP

Kaustubh Dhavse: Infrastructure led growth is important pillar of becoming Viksit Maharashtra

Kaustubh Dhavse: Increased impetus that infrastructure led growth get topmost priority

Story of web 3.0 is much deeper than just the buzzwords, says Nalin Mehta Managing Editor, Moneycontrol; Chief AI Officer.

Nalin Mehta: It is not just a tech upgrade, it's a philosophical upgrade. It provides new ramifications for governance.

Nalin Mehta: India's decade has shown how tech can democratize access.

Adding perspectives from the world of business and innovation are Abhinandan Lodha, Founder of The House of Abhinandan Lodha; Sumit Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO of CoinDCX; and Nitish Mittersain, CEO of Nazara Technologies. Together, they will explore how India can take the lead in the next internet era, powered by a strong digital backbone, entrepreneurial drive, and forward-looking policy.

As India steps confidently into this new chapter, the India Web 3.0 Summit promises to bring together the thinkers, builders, and decision-makers shaping the country’s digital future.

Joining this conversation are some of India’s leading voices across government, policy, business, and technology including Dr. Loganathan Murugan from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting; Shri Ashish Shelar, Minister of Information Technology & Cultural Affairs, Government of Maharashtra; Rama Devi Lanka, Director of Emerging Technologies, Government of Telangana; and Saurabh Garg, Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. From the financial and banking ecosystem, the summit brings together Ajay Rajan, Head of Transaction Banking at Yes Bank; Ashish Singhal, CEO of the Indian Banks' Digital Infrastructure Company; Naman Kapoor, Managing Director & Head of Payments, Asia Pacific at Citigroup; and senior representatives from ICICI Bank.